India is evolving and so are the ambitions of Indians. It has become a start-up hotspot and has attracted investors from across the world. Despite the open and free culture in start-up offices work can get competitive and demanding from employees. To stay ahead from competition some organizations tend to have long and stressful working hours, and at times employees tend to take the stress back home. Add to that the Indian scenario where family is a big part of life, not spending enough time with them adds to the strain that employees feel. Family members start to feel excluded and the friction at home has a tendency to increase.Employees with young kids at home start feeling the guilt leading to lack of focus and concentration at work. The support of family gives significant leverage in terms of reducing work tensions and can make all the difference. Companies have starting involving families in functions and other occasions to make them feel more involved in their organizations. Initiatives that engage with family members of the employees can go a long way in keeping the work force happy and satisfied.Involvement and satisfaction of family members plays an important role in retention of talent. Some initiatives that companies can take to build a relationship with family members are:Thank you letters while hiring - Small gestures like sending welcome letters to the employee's family makes them feel like a part of the extended family of the organization. Small tokens like flowers and cakes to their home address helps the family feel more connected to the company.Celebrating work anniversaries - Celebrating every employee's work anniversary by inviting the spouse & kids or parents and bringing them to office where they meet up with MD and the team members help the members of the family more connected to the job that their spouse does. Small office tours and special dinners makes the employees and the family feel special and warm towards the organization. Gifting small personalized items to the kids will delight the kids and everyone else as well. Employee events that involves families- Involve family members in certain events that are held at work. Having a special bring your family to work day or inclusion in celebrations like annual days go a long way with families. Participation in organizing the event and spending some time with the employees to ensure its success helps families feel like a part of the company. Such gestures initiate trust and respect amongst the family and its employees.Family involvement is extremely important in the professional success of an employee. Small initiatives can help reduce family stress due to work and make family members feel attached to the organization. Understanding of the work and the environment that the spouse works in helps kins feel comfortable and relaxed. Regards and respect for companies is higher by families if they feel like a part of the organization. This interaction also helps in building credibility for the organization by the family and the employees.The author, Pradeep Malhotra, is VP & Managing Director of Blue Jeans India
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Technology companies are great acquisition targets provided they scale up their customer base, Vishal Krishna reports Legacy talent platforms have always had tons of CVs uploaded on them. These platforms were neither intelligent nor productive for organisations that used them. Organisations spent upwards of $2,000 per hire to close the right candidate in mid-level positions. This is an expensive proposition. All that is going to be history now. There are several startups that have cropped up to help organisations with intelligence-based lateral hiring. With the growth of small businesses, especially those that have raised money and are trying to scale up operations, the need to employ experienced individuals has also increased. Myparichay, Hiree, ZenRadius and Talview are some of these new talent hiring platforms that are making hiring intelligent and measurable. They also intend to help HR departments to reduce the time, cost and effort in finding the right person for the available roles. At any given point of time there are a million people scouting for new jobs. About 50 per cent of them are dormant seekers and the rest are active. Hiree, founded by Manjunath Talwar and Abhijith Khasnis, former Yahoo employees, has built a platform that can recognise the needs of the employer and potential employee. Its back-end engine matches the job profiles with the right connects. For example a developer who knows five computer languages would want to work in a company that is investing in its digital strategy. The process is quick and simple on the Hiree app. The engine of Hiree also scouts the entire social profile of the employing company and the employee to match both their needs. IDG Ventures has put in $3 million. The company has scaled up to close to 200,000 users and there are several startups already hiring through their platform. Business Model The business model is based on paying an annual license fee for the data base. The company does not take a cut on the salary at which the employer offers to the candidate. "We are a technology platform that solves hiring and this can scale up faster than other legacy hiring models because they do not match skills," says Talwar. Similarly MyParichay too is using technology to connect with potential hires. This platform links to social networks and uses the connections of an individual to find people of similar profiles. The company has raised $1 million and has been funded by HT Media. Talview, another Bangalore-based startup, is using video technology to help employers, is scouting for funds. Their proposition is to get lateral hires on to a video platform with the employer. Tests and interviews are conducted on a device. Talview offers a login to the employee and they get on to a video platform with the employer at an instant. Talview was founded by Sanjoe Jose, Subramanian K, Jobin Jose and Tom Jose. "We charge for the technology used and it is a license model. They can interview as many employees as they like," says Jose. The central part of all three hiring startups is that they are using technology to disrupt hiring. But they are also building data analytics engines to sieve through the portfolio of registered hires and engage them on a long term basis. There will be 300 million Indians seeking jobs in 2030, even if these startups can cater to 50 million job seekers then these are potential $500 million businesses. Does that mean these companies are early to the party? Like in all such internet businesses, ones with the deepest pocket will survive. "Technology is the differentiator today and that is the theme of all investments today," says Venkatesh Peddi, Vice President at IDG Ventures. He adds that it is the only way to connect to the growing middle class and their changing methods of consumption with smart phones. However, this industry has seen its ups and downs. A Helion Ventures funded startup called Talentpad shut shop because it was not able to scale up in acquiring employees. Such is the nature of the business. Although there are 6 million graduates passing out in the country only 700,000 or 15 per cent are employable. This is also the core audience on the smart phone. According to Kronos, the human capital management product company, there are only 20 million white collar workers. It is large enough. The bet for these hiring platforms will be to raise more money and become the leaders in their industry to survive. Unless a large pool of workers in India start to actively use smartphones and enter the white-collar market, these hiring platforms will not become standalone companies. They will become acquisition targets, for their technology and team, to platforms with deeper pockets.
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Start-ups - and the new age companies that have germinated from these - are faring much better on the gender equality front than the more traditional industries, writes, T.N. HariGender equality is often a subject of heated discussion, and the reasons are pretty obvious. Even those that would agree on the need for gender equality do not necessarily support it whole-heartedly when the rubber hits the road - the 18 year-journey of the Women's Reservation bill in Parliament is testimony to the lip service accorded to gender equality, and till date, the Lok Sabha has not voted on the Bill.Traditionally, some industries were male dominated, and many of them continue to be male dominated - especially those that depended upon physical prowess. Within these industries, women have often played limited roles.However the new age industries and start-ups are beginning to change the paradigm. Three things are different about start-ups: T.N. Hari1. They depend on 'knowledge' and 'innovation' much more than the traditional industries. Traditional industries too need smart people, but these smart people then used industrial engineering techniques to come up with idiot-proof processes that could be operated by those without much of an education. The nature of work was such that this kind of 'industrialization' was possible. The new age industries are different in terms of the nature of work and the competitive landscape in which they operate - they need innovation and problem solving capability at every level. When survival depends on continuous innovation, companies can't discriminate and thrive. Can you imagine Amazon or Uber not capitalizing on an idea just because it has come from a woman, when the source of their leading edge is innovative ideas? Companies in declining or mature markets can afford to be more cavalier. Also, the average education level is significantly higher. With education comes some enlightenment (not always though!) and slightly more liberal views as well - which eventually translates to accepting the truth that women are really equal.2. The workforce is much younger. This younger workforce has experienced gender equality. Those that experience something always tend to truly understand it while those that haven't just pay lip service. The percentage of women in engineering and business schools has been going up steadily over the last few decades. The young men that comprise this workforce have no doubts that their women counterparts are equal, if not better, in any which way. They have been beaten by their women/girl counterparts at every stage in life - every exam day, every placement season! Start-ups that have become full blown mature firms like say CRISIL & Cognizant or companies that have yet to make the transition from a start-up to a mature firm like BigBasket or Spoonjoy generally employ a whole new generation that has experienced gender equality early in life. And they tend to carry this early experience into their work life.3. They operate in a level playing field where women suffer no disadvantages. In several traditional institutions (manufacturing, army) the playing field is tilted heavily in favor of the men Women perform as well as men in roles that do not test physical prowess. Often they do better by demonstrating a higher emotional quotient and a better understanding of people and business. One would struggle to name a bank of significance that does not have a woman at the helm! SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HSBC Bank - one can go on. And, more importantly, women have a fair representation at all levels in these institutions.Having spent equal time in the start-up world and in the traditional industry, I can say with some confidence that the start-ups - and the new age companies that have germinated from these - are faring much better on the gender equality front than the more traditional industries. However, I am not for a moment saying that all start-ups or all new age industries have cracked the code. There has been, and continues to be, a lot of criticism that tech start-ups continue to be male dominated - including companies like Google. A lot of entrepreneurs and VC partners still are largely male. This interesting quote from the Wall street Journal is a good reality check: "Today, there are many examples of successful women founders and executives of tech companies. Despite the success of these trailblazers, many investors still suffer the unintended consequences of pattern recognition when it comes to deciding which businesses and teams to back: Founder(s) must be computer-science majors or, better yet, dropouts…oh, and they are male".The author is HR head at BigBasket.com
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Online real estate listing platform Housing.com has picked up 100% stake in HomeBuy360, a unique cloud-based Sales Lifecycle Management Platform that connects developers, agents and buyers, for $2 million. The HomeBuy360 plaform can be used to streamline the entire sales lifecycle, by tracking inventory, managing customer relations and in effect drive efficiencies in their sale operations. This will help reduce costs for 20,000+ developers in the realty ecosystem. This acquisition will also fortify Housing.com’s Data Science Lab (DSL) with rich data on inventory and transactions in the real estate sector. Commenting on the acquisition, Rishabh Gupta, iCEO and COO Housing.com said, “Developers are key stakeholders to drive efficiency in the Indian real estate sector. Our vision is that every developer uses HB360 to bring down their sales and operating costs. This will help in reduction of property prices eventually benefitting the consumers.” Commenting on the partnership, Rajat Kothari, Founder and CEO, HomeBuy360 said, “The Indian real estate sector is witnessing tremendous growth and traction but it is still highly unorganized, posing significant challenges for the entire ecosystem. With less than 10% of developers currently using CRM for their back end & customer connect operations, we have a huge market opportunity ahead of us. Housing.com has today established itself as a disrupter with innovative products and solutions. Its strong developer network pan India will allow us to further scale our business nationally”. This is Housing.com's third acquisition this year. Earlier this year, Housing.com had acquired Indian Real Estate Forum (IREF), a platform providing unbiased property information to consumers and Realty BI to empower property buyers and financial institutions to assess risks and take informed decisions. With these acquisitions, Housing.com consolidates its leadership position as a comprehensive online realty player and a game changer striving to bring positive change in the real estate industry through its consumer centric products and solutions.
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Elsys is the first of the ten start-ups picked up by the government, to solve real life problems for India, writes Vishal Krishna Around 10 million passenger cars have been added on the roads since 2010 and none of them have an accident management system. According to the Department of Transportation, there are 1.2 million Indians who have lost their lives in the last decade due to accidents. Many of those deaths could have been avoided provided information reached emergency services on time. The government could not crack it and hence they have decided that using technology was the way forward and startups could be their saviours in stopping road accidents. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has requested startups to make software solutions and devices that can solve Indian problems. The new star-tup initiative, run by the Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association and the Software Technology Park of India, is intended for that purpose. Elsys, a startup that provides emergency accident assist services, through its data management platform "Raksha" is all set to be the first startup to be part of the government run Electropreneur park. The device SafeDrive can be retrofitted into cars and bikes and on massive impact, the device triggers phone calls to an ambulance service in the vicinity, dials next of kin and shows exact location of the accident. On top of that, the data collects information on driving habits and can also allow video capture accident or impact. "We built the system to make sure that an ambulance reaches the victim in less than an hour," says Prasad Pillai, co-founder of the company. He adds that he had built this system after a near fatal experience. The Raksha platform collects data from vehicles across the country and presents the data to the government to continuously improve transport services and safety. Elsys is the first of the ten startups picked up by the government, to solve real world problems for India. A few months ago, Ashok Chandak, Chairman of the IESA, along with the folks from the Software Technology park of India, picked up startups to solve problems such as road safety, accident management, public services information management, access to education and healthcare with the use of smart devices. The government received 240 applications of which 160 were shortlisted and 10 selected. Sources say that each start up will receive around Rs 30 lakh to Rs 60 lakh of funding to incubate their ideas and also create market access for commercial viability. Elsys hopes to use this experience to scale up to 100,000 customers in one year. Their go to market model is B2B2C; the founders will connect with automobile companies to retrofit the product into cars or will allow consumers to buy directly off the Elsys website. They plan to sell to state governments too as their product could be used in state transport department vehicles. The platform can even collect on board diagnostic data. There is also a case for hospitals and insurance companies to work with data collected from Elsys to create a network for nationwide road safety. Currently, Elsys is self funded and the company plans to raise a seed around by the end of three months. "We hope to raise our round quickly because the interest in this emergency management product needs us to scale up manufacturing the device," says Jayanth Jagadeesh, co-founder of Elsys. His company competes with the likes of FIN, a bluetooth-based gesture based infotainment management system, which has raised $1 million from Kalaari Capital, and CarIQ, a car on board diagnostics system, which has raised $1 million from Snow Leopard Ventures. FIN is yet to see market traction while CarIQ is trying to ramp up its operations. The good thing is that these startups are solving problems that Indian citizens face when it comes to information transparency and efficiency of service. They could be great acquisition targets to the likes of a Bosch or a Continental, the automobile tier 1 vendors, if they manage to create a niche technology service. The game is in the software platform of Elsys and others. They should scale up their services for Indian consumers and businesses.
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The integration will bring coupons from a host of 200 brands to Hike. Arshad Khan reportsApp service Hike Messenger on Thursday (13 August) announced the integration of coupon app Hoppr and gaming app Tiny Mogul Games (TMG) under the brand Hike.Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder & CEO, Hike Messenger said “We’re excited to take a big leap forward in our mission to bring India online as we bring everything under the hike brand. From Day one, we’ve believed that messaging will be a gateway to the internet for the masses in India and this move reflects just that”.He further added, “By the end of the year we’ll truly see hike, India’s first messaging application emerge as the platform that will bring India online in a big way. We’re just getting started”.Kabhin is the son of Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal. With the integration, Hike is looking at bringing high quality gaming to the platform with the aim of building a service that goes beyond simple messaging, the company said in a statement. In addition to games, the integration will bring coupons from a host of 200 brands to Hike.In 2014, Tiny Mogul Games amassed 5 million downloads including hit games like Shiva: The Time Bender, the first Indian game to be featured by Google Play globally.Launched in December 2012, Hike has over 35 million users and has raised $86 million from Tiger Global and BSB till date. As per the recent industry reports (Ericsson Mobility report and Quettra), Hike is the biggest Made in India app by active usage. The message app is targeting 100 million users by the end of 2015, looking for steady growth from its last published figures of 35 million users in August. Hike is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank Corporation.
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Rohit Chadda, co-founder of online food ordering and delivery firm Foodpanda India, has stepped down as Managing Director of the company and has also resigned form its board."I have personally decided to step aside from my role as Managing Director of the company to pursue new initiatives. I have resigned from the position from August 1," Foodpanda India co-founder Rohit Chadda told PTI.Foodpanda India was co-founded by Chadda, Amit Kohli and Akhilesh Bali in 2012 and currently has around 12,000 restaurant partners in over 200 cities in the country."I have also resigned from the board, however, I will continue as a shareholder in the company but will not be involved in its day-to-day operations," he added.Asked about the new initiatives that he will pursue, Chadda said: "It will be to pursue new challenges, new opportunities. The opportunity on mobile space is huge and that is what I am after."He, however, did not give the details about the field he would be pursuing.Foodpanda had appointed Saurabh Kochhar as its India CEO and chief business officer of global operations in March this year. Foodpanda India is owned by Foodpanda group.The Foodpanda group is active in over 40 countries across five continents. It started as independent startups in multiple countries across South & East Asia, incubated by the same investor - Rocket Internet.The Foodpanda group has raised over USD 300 million in multiple rounds of funding with the last one being of USD 100 million, led by Goldman Sachs.(PTI)
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Every month a large numbers of startups enter the economy but only a few sustain in the long run and make it big. New-age startups believe only innovation will lead the venture to success. Global communication giant, Ericsson organised an event to give recognition to startups, which stand distinct in the list. BW|Businessworld's Arshad Khan interacted with a few new age entrepreneurs, who are bound to stay and aspire. Excerpts Sushanth Poojari of Arterial Pulse Analyser: a joint effort of two engineers, the healthcare focus startup aims at lowering cardio vascular arrests in the country by developing a cost effective machine which tracks down symptoms of any cardio related issues. The effort has got support from regulatory bodies and they are also in talk with international body USFDA to certify their innovation. Chetan Chauhan of Constapark: - the Bangalore-based startup hopes to make big by aggregating parking zones in busy localities and providing it to vehicle owners by charging a service fee. Currently the company charges Rs 1,200-3,500 per month for the service from its 300 clients in Bangalore. The startup has plans to expand its services in Delhi and Mumbai. Shashank Singh of Faceless: a social service startup, Faceless has developed an app which tracks down address of missing children. The startup has photos of 70,000 lost children and uses face identification algorithm technology to find a possible a match for children who are found in unconscious stage of mind. The startup is on the way of making it big as few South American countries have shown interest in hiring their services. 4. Ranjan Kumar Pejaver (Immunize India) - launched in 2014, Immunise India is the world’s largest free SMS service that gives parents vaccination reminders, developed by Dr. Ranjan Kumar Pejaver and Gopala Krishnan. Parents only need to register their child’s name and DOB to get timely reminder till the kid reaches 12. The service is free of cost and has attracted over 6 lac parents to benefit from the service. 5. Raj Desai of WiFi Trash Bin: An innovation by two young achievers (Raj Desai and Pratik Agarwal), the startup provides free wifi to individuals throwing their cans in dustbin. It gives out a password for users to access the wifi every time they put the trash in the bin. Ericson also organised an award ceremony ‘Networked India 2015’ at New Delhi in where the winning Projects were given Cash Rewards of Rs 5 lakh each. The winning projects are: Arterial Pulse Analyzer and Immunize India.
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MeetUrPro is expanding its operations pan India by establishing its presence in Bengalure, Mumbai, and Delhi, reports K Chandra MohanSince 2014 December, Laxman Prasad, a CA, has been partnering with ‘MeetUrPro’, a Chennai-based startup, which provides all sorts of professional services starting from personal taxation, real estate deeds, salary structuring, compliance management and international taxation. “Technology is transforming the lives of people. Any service can partner with MeetUrPro. I am getting good business and can work from anywhere. It’s like providing services online”, says Laxman. In July, 2014, Divakar Vijayasarathy and Rajesh Inbasekaran founded ‘MeetUPro, a one stop-shop for all kinds of legal and tax requirements. A dedicated team of 1200 at MeerUrPro were expanding their network with reliable and affordable services across the nation. Sanjeeth Suman, a Patna-based lawyer who collaborated with MeetUrPro, is rendering services to Ranchi clients. “I am able to offer services to my clients who approach meetUrPro. The client, who approached me through MeetUrPro, is quite happy about the fee that I charged for him”. MeetUrPro offers various services with multiple pricing options. Consumers have the flexibility of choosing the pricing. The end team reduces the initial engagement time, and the chain management team monitors every stage of delivery. The services offered by MeetUrPro are 50 per cent cheaper than those offered by brick and mortar companies. MeetUrPro gets 5-10 per cent margin over a single transaction. Divakar Vijayasarthy, Co-Founder, MeetUrPro.com says, “We are offering a reliable online platform for professionals to expand their business through connecting with businesses and individuals. The customer can choose his option and benefits and is given access to standardised professional services.” According to Vijayasarthy, every transaction at MeetUrPro.com is tracked. Deadlines are adhered to, and high-quality service is provided through a secure workflow management software (TIMI), thus ensuring trustworthy transactions across geographies. The company is registering 50 to 100 transactions per week. And continuously growing and managing today’s marketplace as far as options, pricing and an organised scheme of delivery are concerned. MeetUrPro’s startup clinic will offer fall the services required to start a business right from the incorporation to ongoing compliance requirements, including receipt of certificate of incorporation, PAN , TAN, DIN, liaison for opening bank accounts, consultancy on VAT and Service Tax registration, RBI and FEMA compliance for inbound investments. Vijayasarthy says, “For the Startup Clinic, both online and offline, the initial consultation fee is zero. We guide customers in picking and choosing those of our products which would be required for their stream of business. The prices are market-determined, and we do not have any say in them.” MeetUrPro is expanding its operations pan India by establishing its presence in Bengalure, Mumbai, and Delhi shortly. Divakar Vijayasarathy is firm on consolidating Indian market and by 2017, will begin operations overseas and to reach $1 million in revenues.
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Online higher education could be worth Rs 6000 crore domestically if startups can scale up their customer acquisition programmes, writes Vishal KrishnaAfter three years of setting up processes and courses to train executives in data analytics Jigsaw Academy, a tech-enabled education startup, has signed term sheets with a couple of investors to raise $3.5 million. If the deal comes through in 3 months then we will see other tech focused education companies, like Simplilearn, either raising more money or buying online voice and video education platforms.Jigsaw Academy was founded by data scientists Gaurav Vohra and Sarita Digumarti. The company has in three years hit a turnover of Rs 12 crore per year and employs over 70 people. It focuses on making executives use data more efficiently rather than just collating data. The company declined to comment on the fund raising. But mentioned that it's course work was becoming popular in the USA, India and South East Asia. "We are not a course aggregator. Our courses are built in house by a team of data scientists and focuses on subject understanding," says Gaurav Vohra, founder of Jigsaw Academy. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, the online education industry can be worth $40 billion by 2017. This includes all forms of education. However, online higher education could be worth Rs 6000 crore domestically if startups can scale up their customer acquisition programmes. There is a need to skill 300 million Indians by 2015 and companies like Jigsaw fall in the middle of enabling this growth.
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